Lakeshore

I worked on Madness of Flowers yesterday on my lunch hour, got about 20 pages done. Which was a good thing because I never got back to my keyboard after that. I won't see the_child for almost two weeks due to the two of us having overlapping travel schedules, so she was around a whole bunch in the afternoon and early evening. lasirenadolce returned to Nuevo Rancho Lake as well.

I was cleaning the fridge because of my upcoming absence. (After today I'll be in the house one day before March 3th — RadCon, a business trip to Denver, home one day, the South Carolina Book Festival, a business trip to Omaha, Potlatch, then home.) I had a chicken carcass and a good piece of a turkey quarter which had to go. Rather than chucking them, I cooked them down to stock. the_child liked the smell so much that we pulled off a daughter pot of the stock, threw in oregano, black pepper, salt and paprika, and some chopped onions and carrots. I fished a few pieces of meat out of the stock pot as well. So, homemade chicken-turkey soup. Churkey? At any rate, it made the house smell divine.

the_child and I also spent some time discussing music. She now has a much broader technical knowledge of the subject than I do. I played some favorites for her and we discussed their key, their tempo, the length of the notes, et cetera. The playlist for this little seminar was:

• Whiter Shade of Pale
• Don't Fear the Reaper
• Godzilla
• Smoke on the Water
• Kashmir
• In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida

We was in the house, baby! It's nice to have erudite conversation with her.

This morning is Valentine's Day, of course. lasirenadolce and I have both already attempted ambush tactics. Send your love to someone today, whatever that means to you.

The Subterranean Farms of Tokyo — (Thanks to the_flea_king.)

The Story of Stuff

Shorpy with another very striking railroad photo

Wiring Up DNA — Measuring the conductivity of DNA could provide a way to detect mutations.

Kansas HS refuses female official — They had a religious objection: "Campbell, as a woman, could not be put in a position of authority over boys." Definitely need more of this kind of values-based thinking in politics, yep! Luckily, the GOP is on the case.

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2/14/08
Time in saddle: 18 minutes at varying speeds (working my way back to 30 minutes due to knees being NSF last week)
Last night's weigh-out: 272.6
This morning's weigh-in: 270.4
Currently reading: The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image, by Leonard Shlain [ Powell's | Amazon ]

:: squee ::

Bound galleys of Escapement have arrived, just in time for RadCon. Let the mailings commence!

:: bounces ::

Friday, February 15th
3:00 pm	So This is Your First RadCon
6:00 pm	The Genres
8:00 pm	Who's Line is it Anyway
10:00 pm	A Pirate's Guide to Booty Management
11:00 pm	Midnight Horror Reading
Saturday, February 16th
10:00 am	Agents: Blood Sucking Fiends or Your Best Friend?
11:00 am	Lunch as a Book Signing
2:00 pm	Harry Turtledove Interview
6:00 pm	Masquerade Tech
8:00 pm	Alien Abductions, Britney Spears, and Tornadoes
9:00 pm	Science Fiction Pictionary

Earliest Bats Had No Radar — I'm pretty sure modern bats don't have radar either. Unless echolocation now works via the EM spectrum rather than sound.

Lake Mead may go dry by 2021 — "There is a 50 percent chance that Lake Mead, which was created by the Hoover Dam and the Colorado River, will go dry by 2021 because of escalating human demand and climate change." Climate change? Lake Mead has a liberal bias! Darn that reality.

Lego B-1 Bomber — Mmm...cool...

Cool rockets — :: wants :: wants :: wants ::

Space Station Crew Can Access Gun — Um, yeah. "You're head is very tiny from up here, but I'll bet I can hit you."

Aqua forest aquaria

Destination oasis — Some striking photos.

A review of Madonna's new movie — The lede is some of the funniest snark I have ever seen in my life.

Republicans disrupt Rep. Lantos' memorial service — Guess respect for a dead colleague isn't a family value.

I've sold short story "Bringing the Future Home" to Eric Reynolds for Global Warming Aftermaths. It's a brief tale of the next ice age, aeronautics, and children.

I am out of here to RadCon, where I will be mastering toast, then off to Denver on business Monday and Tuesday of next week. Expect intermittent light blogging with lightly scattered wit and erudition.

lasirenadolce and I drove up from Portland with davidlevine. After dropping David off at the hotel, we broke our diet and had a Valentine's Day dinner at an adequate Italian restaurant. I just knocked back an hour on Madness of Flowers. We'll be up early to the hotel gym, then a Hanford tour, then the convention starts. Already running into old friends.